In the process of fabricating modern semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and other electronic devices, it is often desirable to planarize surfaces prior to depositing subsequent layers to ensure, for example, accurate formation of photoresist masks and to maintain stack tolerances. One method of planarizing a layer during IC fabrication is chemical mechanical planarizing (CMP). In general, CMP involves the relative movement of the substrate held in a polishing head against a polishing material to remove surface irregularities from the substrate. In a CMP process, the polishing material is wetted with a polishing fluid that may contain at least one of an abrasive or chemical polishing composition. This process may be electrically assisted to electrochemically planarize conductive material on the substrate.
Planarizing hard materials such as oxides typically requires that the polishing fluid or the polishing material itself include abrasives. As the abrasives often cling or become partially embedded in the layer of material being polished, the substrate is processed on a buffing module to remove the abrasives from the polished layer. The buffing module removes the abrasives and polishing fluid used during the CMP process by moving the substrate which is still retained in the polishing head against a buffing material in the presence of deionized water or chemical solutions. The buffing module is similar to the CMP module except for the polishing fluids utilized and the material on which the substrate is processed.
Once buffed, the substrate is transferred to a series of cleaning modules that further remove any remaining abrasive particles and/or other contaminants that cling to the substrate after the planarizing and buffing process before they can harden on the substrate and create defects. The cleaning modules may include, for example, a megasonic cleaner, a scrubber or scrubbers, and a dryer. The cleaning modules that support the substrates in a vertical orientation are especially advantageous, as they also utilize gravity to enhance removal of particles during the cleaning process, and are also typically more compact.
Although present CMP processes have been shown to be robust and reliable systems, the configuration of the system equipment requires the buffing module to utilize critical space which could alternatively be utilized for additional CMP modules. However, certain polishing fluids, for example those using cerium oxide, are particularly difficult to remove and conventionally require processing the substrate in buffing module before being transferred to the cleaning module as conventional cleaning modules have not demonstrated the ability to satisfactorily remove abrasive particles from oxide surfaces that have not been buffed prior to cleaning.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved CMP process and cleaning module.